We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, February 16, 2013

South Americans Face Upheaval in Deadly Water Battles

Click here to access article by Michael Smith from Bloomberg

This is a report on the struggle for access to water between global mining corporations versus local people. Guess who is winning.
The conflicts in South America are part of an intensifying global struggle for water. Two of the mightiest rivers on earth -- the Yellow River in China and the Colorado in the U.S. and Mexico -- have been so depleted by cities, factories and farms that they rarely reach the sea, as they had for eons. 
Notice that the writer of this piece for a premier Wall Street media company goes out of his way to sprinkle comments by corporate friendly sources to soothe peoples' concerns about the issue. Still I give Bloomberg credit for reporting on this issue unlike most other corporate media.